Marcintosh:wickedragon: MadWoman: I want to laugh, but I've been the roommate of that guy. He starts out as the nice, polite and slightly-more-religious-than-you're comfortable-with-but-not-exactly-a-fundamentalist-type guy you have no problem introducing to your friends and family. Then a few months later, you find out that actually he has schizophrenia and is off his meds when he starts harassing your neighbors and your other roommates with tales of his visions of the Devil being in the shower with him, and of God, who is telling him all sinners- which includes said neighbors and roommates- need to repent or they should die. Not a comfortable situation. This definitely sounds like a version of that. I am definitely sympathetic to people with schizophrenia, so I hope I'm not coming off as callous, but that is a disease that can get serious quickly if someone who needs medication goes off them. Glad he's getting help.

I've met and talked to three schizophrenics, and two of them refused to take their medication for any prolonged time. And I understand them completely. I went to college with one of them and seeing her on her meds were depressing. It was like someone had taken a particularly exhausting run and then smoked some pot. She might as well not have been there. The one who were on her meds said she was so far off without them that she wasn't going to stop taking them, ever. The third person stopped taking his meds after suffering a stroke from taking them (doctor's conclusions, not his own).

And that's your attitude on this. Others such as my self, have a far different take on this. There's a nine year old girl that's been resting in her grave in MIddletown CT since the late 1980's because she was stabbed to death while attending a Main St Festival, a harmless event sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce. She was stabbed in the heart by a person that "didn't like the way the drugs made them feel". It was over so fast the policeman standing not ten feet away or ...

the bulk of people with mental health problems do not have violent tendencies. seeing you have a large reaction to one little girl who was killed by a mental patient while off their meds, you must go absolutely ballistic every time you walk past a bar or package goods store. there are drunks and innocents killed across the country every night thanks to alcohol and poor judgement.meanwhile, you're just one odd fender bender or a trip down a few stairs from going Special Ed yourself. count your blessings you were born supposedly sane. and when you grow up learn what 'sympathy' and 'empathy' means.